Good Morning Australia!! - North Korea's only friend is backing away - Trump's Puerto Rico recovery effort STILL isn't getting off the ground - Am acclaimed actress goes to bat for the have-nots in revealing her cancer battle - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

China is ordering North Korean businesses operating in its territory to close down before early January, in compliance with United Nations economic sanctions to pressure the hermit kingdom to give up its nuclear weapons program.  Joint Chinese-North Korean ventures are included.  Beijing is Pyongyang's only friend in the world, but has already halted fuel shipments to North Korea and blocked textile exports from the country. 

The so-called Islamic State uploaded a "new" audio recording of reclusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, purported made recently.  The speaker seems to refer to recent North Korean threats against Japan and the US, and the battle for Mosul which IS lost earlier this year.  If he is alive, al Baghdadi still has a US$25 Million bounty on his head.

The Trump administration waited until Thursday to appoint a three-star military general to oversee the rescue and recovery effort in Puerto Rico - a week after Hurricane Maria - and Donald Trump finally waved the obscure, century-old shipping law called the Jones Act which prevented much needed supplies from getting to the island.  But the administration also spent the day denying that it was dragging its feet in coming to the aid of the US territory in the Caribbean. 
Baghdad Bob Goes To Puerto Rico
Even as cable TV news outlets showed live video of thousands shipping containers filled with aid sitting in port, and desperate civilians crossing a rushing river using a rope stretched across the wrecked bridge, National Security Adviser Tom Bossert stood outside the White House angrily lashed out at the media for allegedly distorting the federal government's actions to respond to the hurricane.  3.4 million Americans in Puerto Rico are without electricity while necessities like food, potable water, medicine, etc. are down to the last scraps.  Department of Homeland Security chief Elaine Duke said she was "very satisfied" with the recovery effort.  But Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner in Washington, DC Jenniffer Gonzalez reiterated, "People are dying" in the "humanitarian crisis."

The Trump administration is restricting congressional delegations from going to Puerto Rico to find out what is or isn't going on.  Several lawmakers are making arrangements for private travel after being told by the Trump White House that only "life supporting trips" could be made to the US territories using official government resources.  Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez is among those refusing to stand for that:  "Soy Boricua, no necesito permiso," the Chicago-born son of Puerto Rican migrants tweeted, "I'm Puerto Rican, so I don't need anyone's permission to go."  Gutierrez has criticized the administration for failing to send the military in to fix the radio and cellular phone towers, as it does so quickly and efficiently in countries it goes to war with.

Comic actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus says she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  "1 in 8 women get breast cancer.  Today, I'm the one," she wrote, but she made it clear it was not all about her:  "The good news is that I have the most glorious group of supportive and caring family and friends, and fantastic insurance through my union.  The bad news is that not all women are so lucky, so let's fight all cancers and make universal health care a reality," she tweeted, referring to the healthcare battle in the US.  The 56-year old is one of show biz' most-durable actresses, featuring on SNL in the 1980s, "Seinfeld" in the 1990s, "The New Adventures of Old Christine" in the 2000s, and the acclaimed, biting political comedy "Veep" in the present decade.

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner is dead at age 91.  Depending on who's writing the obituary, Hefner either presided over the much-needed relaxation of the West's repressed sexual mores; or he mainstreamed the objectification of women, taking what was once seen only backroom girly magazines and marketing it at a post-war industrial scale.  Either way, he was truly the king of making millions off of masturbation.  Along the way, Hefner strongly supported the Civil Rights Movement and Playboy provided a much-needed platform for writers, interviews, and activists to bring to the mainstream ideas that were previously shut out:  Dick Gregory, John Updike, Fidel Castro, Norman Mailer, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Jack Kerouac, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others.

Barcelona police are blocking a warehouse with election materials for the Catalan Independence Vote, which separatists hoped to have this weekend.  Thousands have been marching through Barcelona demanding that the vote go ahead.  Spain considers the vote to be illegal and is doing all it can to prevent it from happening.

Baby Rhinoceros alert!  Baby Rhinoceros alert!  At the Singapore Zoo.